File photoThe Hoboken University Medical Center. Mayor Dawn Zimmer wants taxpayers to pay up to $5M to help settle creditor's bankruptcy claims against city hospital and facilitate the sale of the hospital.

Mayor Dawn Zimmer is asking taxpayers to dig deeper into their pockets and pay up to $5 million to help settle creditor’s bankruptcy claims against Hoboken University Medical Center in an effort to ease its sale, according to a memo issued today, the Star-Ledger is reporting.

The city has already agreed to forgo $2 million they are owed from the hospital, and Zimmer said the additional $5 million does not guarantee that it will satisfy creditors, but it represents the administration's last effort to save the hospital from closure, the Ledger said.

“I know this is an unusual approach, but given the enormous importance of this matter to our residents and taxpayers, I believe it is my obligation to present this to council in this manner,” Zimmer said in the memo. "If either no bond ordinance receives six votes on first reading, or if the amount approved is ultimately not sufficient to reach an agreement then the hospital will be forced to close, most probably by the end of October."

The request is expected to go before the council at tomorrow night's meeting. Zimmer has five allies on council, but she needs six votes to approve the bond issue.

The $5 million would represent yet another taxpayer contribution to the controversial hospital sale that has divided the Hoboken community, the Ledger adds. A group of investors who own the Bayonne Medical Center want to purchase the hospital for $65 million and turn it into a for-profit facility.